Spotlight on… Jessica!

There are so many talented people in the Philly Modern Quilt Guild! We have every level of quilter from the just starting out to the 40+ years of experience. One of the best parts of this is the inspiration we can gain from other members – which you’ll find no lack of in the following interview!

· Tell me a bit about yourself:

My name is Jessica Levitt. I’m 35 years old (for a few more weeks) and live in Central NJ with my two kids (ages almost 4 and almost 7) and my husband.

· What do you do?

I’m a fabric designer and now an author (That’s fun to say!). I work from home so I get to spend lots of time with the kids. For fun I do more sewing of all kinds, I ballroom dance with my husband, and I love to travel both with and without the kids.

Please check out my blog, Juicy Bits ( www.juicy-bits.typepad.com ) to see what I’m up to lately.

· How did you get started quilting?

My aunt got me interested in fabrics when I was in about 7th grade. She mostly likes to just shop but I sewed my first quilt pretty quickly. It was an (absolutely hideous) Trip Around the World.

· Who taught you to quilt?

No one, but my mom taught me the basics of sewing. And I did a touch of sewing in home ec.

· Did you ever take quilting lessons from someone?

I’ve taken very few quilting classes. Maybe two ever. I mostly learned by trial and error. It took a while before I learned about batting, binding, quilting, and all that. My first few were done with the flip-right-side-out method and boy is that not fun to try to get the batting to lay flat.

· What do you like best about quilting?

I love fabric and playing with all the combinations. It’s always fun to see how you can completely change the look of a pattern by swapping the fabrics.

· What is the hardest thing about quilting?

I hate basting. It’s so time consuming (And I spray baste to make it easier) and hard to be down on your hands and knees.

· How do you decide what pattern to make?

I very rarely follow patterns. I’m often inspired by something but have to change it to make it my own. Although, lately I have realized the joy of simply following directions and not having to do any math etc myself. You can jump right in and finish in no time.

· Where do you do your work? Do you have a quilting room?

Yes, I have sewing studio. I’d send a picture but it’s nearly always a disaster!

· Do you use a sewing machine, long arm quilter or do you quilt by hand?

I sew everything I can by machine. That includes binding. I’m all about instant gratification! I did recently send some quilts to a long arm quilter which was fun. No more basting or shoving it under the machine! But I will probably still do some myself.

· How much time do you quilt during an average week?

It really varies. I sew probably 8-10 hours on a slow week, much more if I’m actually working on something important. But not all of my sewing is quilting.

· Do you name your quilts or label them?

Yes, although I kinda hate coming up with names. I frequently don’t get the label part done in time and have to go back and do it later.

· Have you ever taught someone to quilt?

Yes, I’ve taught classes at our local adult education program and taught plenty of friends. I love teaching beginners because they’re so excited to see what they can make.

· How do you choose your colors? What are your favorites?

It’s all about my mood lately or a particular fabric that speaks to me. My all time favorite color is chartreuse green and lots of other versions of green. You’ll find that in a lot of my projects.

· Where do you buy your fabrics and materials? Is there any particular supply you’re partial to?

I shop in a lot of different places. I’m not particularly close to any big quilt shops, but Pennington Quilt Works (http://penningtonquilts.com/) is less than an hour away and I love their store. I grew up on Cape Cod and I still go shopping at Tumbleweed Quilts (http://www.tumbleweedquilts.com) every time I go back. Amazing store. I also shop online, but I’m not particularly loyal…it’s all about who has the most of what I’m looking for.

· What quilt(s) are you working on now?

I’m excited to get started on my first quilting bee quilt from my Busy Bee group ( http://www.flickr.com/groups/busy-bees/ ). It’s purples, greys, and greens! I’m also thinking of a baby boy quilt for a friend but I haven’t made a firm design yet. And I’m working on writing up the pattern for my Prairie Glass Squared free pattern for my fabric collection Kingdom.

· Do you make up your designs?

Yes, very often. And I have finished my first sewing book. It has 7 quilts, plus bags, pillows, apron, tablecloth, and more! All the projects combine solid fabrics with designer prints. It’s called Modern Mix ( http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Mix-Projects-Combine-Designer/dp/1607052490/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309976056&sr=8-1) and will be available in September.

· What other crafts do you indulge in or hope to learn?

Way too many to count. You name, I’ve tried it. I always want to learn new things. I do a fair bit of crochet. I also do costume design/sewing. I love party design and planning (I was a wedding designer for a few years). And home decor as well.
But the big one is fabric design. My second collection of Windham Fabrics is called Kingdom (http://www.windhamfabrics.com/cgi-bin/fabricshop/gallery.cgi?Category=521) and will be available in august. Designing fabric was a dream of mine, especially since I’ve loved fabrics before designers were even a thing (AKA before Amy Butler). After my kids were born and I was home a lot feeling somewhat isolated, I discovered the sewing/crafting blogworld and I was inspired to just go for it and see what I could come up with. I love Art Nouveau and Mission style and I knew I was going to incorporate that into my design. I do most of my work in Adobe Illustrator. Sometimes I sketch a design first and then scan it and edit it and add colors and all that. I get my inspiration everywhere and constantly make little scribbled sketches.

· What other organizations are you involved in to enrich your love of the fiber arts?

I don’t belong to any other guilds, but I’d love to join a new online bee. It’s been a lot of fun this year. Since I work professionally in the industry I get to go to Quilt Market every so often and be inspired.

· What are your quilting related goals?

Mostly I want to support my fabric addiction so I hope to do enough work professionally to keep up with my spending.

· What do you consider your greatest quilting related achievement?

Probably my first fabric collection, Timber (http://www.windhamfabrics.com/cgi-bin/fabricshop/gallery.cgi?Category=410) . It was so thrilling to see the designs come to life and watch others sew with them. But once I hold my book in my hand, I’ll probably consider that my greatest achievement.

· What is your most treasured possession?

Well, I don’t know if family counts as a possession, but they’re the most important thing in my life. As far as actual material goods, I’ll say this: I LOVE my bed.

· What is your motto?

“The Lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.” – Chaucer

Congrats, Jessica, on your new book!! I can’t wait to see it. And thanks a ton for taking the time to be interviewed!

To give you an idea of my blogging schedule, here are my responsibilities:

• Every other Thursday, I post either a Gift Guide or a Creative Challenge on Handmade Philly’s blog
• Every other Thursday, I post an interview on Philly Modern Quilt Guild’s blog
• Whenever I can muster the time and energy (possibly every week during the summer months), I’ll be posting many different topics on the Oakmont Farmers Market blog
• In my extra time, I post to the Friends of the Haverford Township Free Library blog

Obviously not all of my posts will interest you – unless your a quilter/crafter/artisan living in the HT area who frequents the library and loves locally grown products, in which case call me because we might be twins separated at birth – but I hope that some of them will be interesting to you. And I always try to make the eye candy worthy of a visit to the blog I’m posting on

So branch out! Check out my interests and see if maybe they interest you too!

This can mean a ton of different things – from the easiest involving nothing but tape to the difficult requiring lots of tools. Depending on the required time and my energy level, I’ll rip out a zipper and reinstall at a better location. If time and energy are low? Well then, it’s time to cut off the top and make it a draw string.

Getting over my fear of ruining my clothing was probably the biggest step. But is it worse to cut away too much and have to completely repurpose or to let it rot in its original condition in the back of my closet? I like to opt for the former. And the grand result of all my reconfiguring and altering is a wonderful wardrobe where I can pull anything off the shelf and know it’ll fit.

In need of the same thing? Feel free to contact me for my alterations price list. Or if you’d rather learn to fix it all yourself, I’d love to teach you! Contact me to set up a sew date at your place or mine.

Photo credit

I volunteered at the Handmade Philly table at which we were making monster pins or collage pins. We were a kid friendly station and had sooo many creative people sit and chat with us throughout the day. And of course, periodically I’d meander to the swap tables and snag some sweet additions to my closet.

I saw less and less of the items I provided with each visit to the tables which made me a happy camper. And I seriously ended up swapping out all the fabric in my wheelie suitcase for clothing! I managed to complete all the alterations to make everything fit within a day or two which really made the whole experience worthwhile.

Thanks a million to Megan for putting the whole thing together! And I don’t know who got Urban Outfitters to open up their headquarters but it was AWESOME!! I wonder if there are any openings for accountants….

Photo credit: Allison Ostertag

]]> http://www.astitchindesign.com/handmade-philly-3/a-suitcase-full-of-new-clothes/feed/ 0 http://www.astitchindesign.com/pmqg/pmqg-shop-interview-wrap-up/ http://www.astitchindesign.com/pmqg/pmqg-shop-interview-wrap-up/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 15:45:29 +0000 Nicole http://www.astitchindesign.com/?p=467 Today marks the last day of shop interviews that I did for the Philly Modern Quilt Guild blog. Whew, and am I ever happy that’s over! It turned out to be a bit more time consuming than I thought, especially since I went from doing bi-weekly posts there to doing weekly posts. But all the interviewees were great at answering my deluge of questions and some even provided their own photos! While I would’ve loved to visit each shop in person, some are located quite a drive from my place. It was great to hear from them so scattered throughout the area and I really hope some of the blog readers were able to find new fabric shops close to their house. Here’s a link to the last one which went live this morning – Susan from The Village Quilter. And just in case you’d like to catch up on all the other quilt shops in the area, here’s enough reading material to last you a few hours.

I have to admit, seeing rows and rows of fabric always makes me smile and makes my heart beat a little faster just considering all the possibilities…

Needless to say I’ve been busy – just not here on my own site. Every week from Aug through this week I’ve been posting shop interviews on the Philly Modern Quilt Guild blog. And every other Thursday, I post either a gift guide or a creative challenge on the Handmade Philly blog. And somewhere in between those two projects, I’ve been working with another person to set up and start blogging on the new Friends of the Haverford Township Free Library site.

And did I mention that I was the quoit queen? Really, that’s just because the winning team was all male, but I’ll take what I can get!

I know some bloggers repost articles on other websites they run, but I just don’t think that’s very fun. Then again, in my case anyway, it’s either reposting articles or an entire month with no posts! Which is better?

Now that we’re solidly into my favorite month out of all twelve, I’m hoping to do a bit more posting here where I call home – ASID. For October, my goal is to post at least once a week here and possibly throw a link up to a good post elsewhere that I’ve authored. What are your goals?

So it helps to have everything purchased and neatly organized by project for whenever the motivation bug hits. I’ve got a wide range of items on my list – from plates (which I’m hoping the husband can be convinced into helping with!) to purses to luggage tags (check out the tutorial from Skip to my Lou). I’m pretty psyched to get started and push this non-productive summer behind me!

What’s on your crafty to-do list?

• a beach trip

• a business trip

• two quilt shop visits & a few more interviews

• dinner out with friends

Speaking of the quilt shop visits and interviews, for my quilt guild’s website I’ve volunteered to focus on some shops and owners for the next month or two. It’s been an enlightening experience as each owner has a different point of view and are at different points in their business cycles. I’ve met with recent openers and ones who expect to close soon (OH NO! – I know, that one was heartbreaking to hear). I’m excited to post those interviews soon along with all the wonderful eye candy from the shops.

I’m also hoping to have some of my items up on etsy one of these days. Sometimes real life just gets in the way of my to do list

So, what have you been up to?

And pirates:

And seahorses:

Well, you get the point. The kids looked like they definitely enjoyed participating in the story instead of the traditional being read to. And I was entertained! Following is a slide show of all the images I snapped. If only they had a production like this for grown-ups…